University library restitutes books to Jewish lodges

The Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library has returned a total of 41 books at the premises of the B’nai B’rith Frankfurt Schönstädt Lodge in Frankfurt’s Westend district. The books were identified as Nazi-looted property at the University Library as a result of a provenance research project which was funded by the German Lost Art Foundation and supported by the City of Frankfurt. Ten volumes were returned to B’nai B’rith and 31 to the Odd Fellows Lodge.

Goethe University seeks to face up to its responsibility

The fact that the process of restitution is finally getting under way, 89 years after the expropriation, is thanks to provenance research carried out at the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library. The systematic search in the University Library’s holdings for books originating from contexts of Nazi injustice began in autumn 2020. The first phase of the project ended in 2025: it revealed that the amount of looted property in the holdings is significantly greater than expected. The books in question entered the University Library’s holdings by various routes during the 1930s and later – the library itself has a complex institutional history. 
The restituted books consist primarily of material specific to the lodges: membership lists, literature on the history of the lodges, statutes and rules. Their monetary value is modest, but their symbolic value is immeasurable. Discussions with the two Frankfurt-based lodges established that they would accept the volumes on behalf of branches that no longer exist. The B’nai B’rith books will subsequently remain at the University Library on permanent loan.

Of 103 lodges in Germany, only three remain

Ten books were handed over to the B’nai B’rith Frankfurt Schönstädt Lodge. They previously belonged to lodges in Germany and the Czech Republic that were forcibly dissolved by the Nazis. B’nai B’rith (“Sons of the Covenant”) is a Jewish fraternal organisation founded in New York City in 1843 by Jewish immigrants of German origin. At the end of the Weimar Republic, there were 103 B’nai B’rith lodges in Germany with tens of thousands of members. The three Frankfurt lodges shared a lodge building on Eschersheimer Landstrasse. In 1937, the Gestapo dissolved the lodges and confiscated the Frankfurt building, which was badly damaged during the war and demolished in 1950. Today, only three lodges remain in Germany – in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin. As in the past, the organisation is dedicated to promoting charity and education, mutual support and Jewish solidarity.

Odd Fellows: once one of Europe’s largest charitable organisations

31 books were restituted to the Odd Fellows, which historically had close ties to B’nai B’rith. Around one-third of its members were Jewish. These books, too, were accepted on behalf of lodges that no longer exist: they came from Odd Fellows lodges throughout Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organisation originally associated with tradesmen and craftsmen, emerged in England in the 18th century and spread around the world in the 19th century. The Frankfurt Goethe Lodge was founded in 1875. The Odd Fellows see themselves as a humanitarian fraternal order that promotes values such as friendship, tolerance and charity. Its activities focus particularly on supporting people in need, providing assistance in cases of unemployment and hardship, and establishing its own charitable institutions.  

With kind assistance of Anke Sauter, Science Communication, Goethe University Frankfurt

Funded Projects:

• Recherche nach NS-Raubgut in den Beständen der Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg [Research into Nazi-looted property in the holdings of the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library] (November 2020 – February 2025)
• NS-Raubgut in wertvollen Sondersammlungen der UB JCS Frankfurt (Erscheinungsjahre 1501-1945) [Nazi-looted property in valuable special collections of the UB JCS Frankfurt (publication years 1501–1945)] (February 2025 – February 2027)